Weekly Homily

Pentecost Sunday: May 20, 2018

Today concludes the Easter Season, and today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, makes of disciples a new people.

What does it mean "a new people?" On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came down from heaven in the form of divided tongues, as of fire, that rested on each of the disciples. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages.

To each disciple, the Holy Spirit gives a gift, and then gathers them all into unity. In other words, the same Spirit creates diversity and unity, and in this way forms a new, diverse and unified people: the Universal Church. The Holy Spirit generates diversity and then brings about unity.

We are called to generate diversity and then to bring about unity. But we need to avoid two temptations. The first temptation seeks diversity without unity. This happens when we want to separate, when we take sides and form parties, when we adopt rigid and airtight positions, when we become locked into our own ideas and ways of doing things, perhaps even thinking that we are better than others, or always in the right, when we become so-called guardians of the truth. When this happens, we choose the part over the whole, belonging to this or that group before belonging to the Church. And the Church is all. All. We become avid supporters for one side, rather than brothers and sisters in the one Spirit. We become Christians of the right or the left, before being on the side of Jesus. The result is diversity without unity.

The opposite temptation is that of seeking unity without diversity. Here, unity becomes uniformity, where everyone has to do everything together and in the same way, always thinking alike. Unity ends up being homogeneity and no longer freedom.

Brothers and sisters: our mission, here at St. Jude, is to embrace and serve a diverse population varying in age and ethnicity – diversity. We express our faith through Eucharist, word of God and service. And we are committed to serving the Universal Church – unity. We welcome all – diversity – who seek to know and love Our Savior Jesus – unity.